D.C. Sends Out High Schoolers Private Data By Mistake

The Post is reporting that the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education accidentally emailed personal information belonging to roughly 2,400 D.C. high school students out to about 1,000 people last week. The mistake reportedly happened when an employee who works in the Higher Education Financial Services Program, which administers the District's Tuition Assistance Grant Program that helps eligible college-bound D.C. residents pay the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition at state universities across the country, inadvertently attached a spreadsheet to an email she was sending out to applicants. What kind of information was in that spreadsheet? "Student names, e-mail and home addresses, phone and Social Security numbers and dates of birth." Major drag, and major mistake.

It's an important story, but what you really shouldn't miss are the hysterical quotes Postie Bill Turque nabbed from a wigged out private school parent.

Parents reacted angrily to word of the breach. Brenda Thomas, whose daughter Leah is a senior at Maret, a private school in Northwest Washington, said she was "livid."

"We tell her how important it is not to give her Social Security number out, not even to join Facebook for goodness sakes," said Thomas, who described her daughter as "in tears." Even more aggravating, she said, was that she was only recently informed by OSSE that Leah, who will attend Stanford this fall, was ineligible for assistance because the family exceeded income guidelines.

"And now this," Thomas said.

Yeesh. It's not hard to imagine why this kid is in tears. Her parents are so paranoid that she's not even allowed to join Facebook? Also, we have to wonder why Thomas thinks her daughter is ineligible only because of their income bracket. If she's going to Stanford, she's ineligible for the tuition assistance program because she's not going to a state school.